Director

Screenplay

The law of diminishing returns, which has afflicted so many
comedy sequels over the years, strikes again in “Horrible Bosses 2,” further
proving that just telling the same joke with a dirtier punchline isn’t quite as
funny as hearing it for the first time. Fortunately, the energy of the cast, particularly
newcomer Chris Pine and the always-endearing Charlie Day, keeps it from falling
apart completely, despite an arguably offensive, juvenile, and repetitive
script from Sean Anders & John Morris. The relative relatability of the
first film—following average guys forced into extreme behavior by their
sociopathic bosses—has been replaced by pure slapstick, often of the “gross-out
humor” variety. Morris & Anders, who also directed, literally repeat many
of the same set-ups and punchlines from the original “Bosses,” only more
crassly this time and with more discussion of bodily fluids. And nothing is
quite as cinematically desperate as someone telling you a joke you’ve already
heard only louder.

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Straight man Nick (Jason Bateman), horndog Kurt (Jason
Sudeikis), and comic sidekick Dale (Charlie Day) have started their own
business, named, of course, “Nick & Kurt & Dale.” After a television
appearance goes horribly wrong, our three stooges run into trouble getting the
financing for their sure-to-be-popular “Shower Buddy.” They turn to investor
Rex Hanson (Pine) and his infamous father Bert (a depressingly wasted Christoph
Waltz), who agree to finance the first wave of Shower Buddies to hit the
market. Of course, it’s all a scam, and the Hansons plan to bankrupt and
takeover the business. When it looks like they have no other recourse, Nick
& Kurt & Dale plot to kidnap Rex and hold him for ransom. Small
problem: Rex is crazy. And our heroes are relatively moronic. That’s a
dangerous combination. It all leads to misunderstandings, violent escapades, and
plot twists that allow for the over-sexed Julia (Jennifer Aniston),
double-talking “Motherf**ker” Jones (Jamie Foxx), and even convicted Dave
(Kevin Spacey) to return for the fun.

There was a time when it was rumored that the sequel to
“Horrible Bosses” would find Bateman, Sudeikis, and Day in the boss roles with
three new guys looking for revenge against them. The idea that we all become
the boss we hate could have made for a really clever twist on the comedy
sequel, although that would have been a narratively risky proposition, and the
problem with “Horrible Bosses 2” is that risk was never in the equation. It’s a
comedy with no surprises. Spacey’s verbal abuse, Aniston’s raunchy
declarations, Foxx’s faux bravado—we’ve literally seen it all before. Just
three years ago. And the first film worked because of the surprises it held—especially
in the unexpected extremes of the characters played by Spacey, Aniston, and
Colin Farrell. Without those extremes to offset the straight guys at the
center, this sequel gets surprisingly boring very, very quickly. Pine brings it
some nice energy, but Waltz feels completely out of place, as if the writers
were too busy with their old characters to think of something for a new one to
do.

The few charms of “Horrible Bosses 2” come from the energy
of the central cast. Sudeikis has turned his aloof idiot routine into something
surprisingly charming, while Day steals the movie yet again with his remarkably
likable naïveté (although I don’t remember Dale being quite this dumb in the first movie). And
Bateman is nearly unmatched in the department of comic exasperation.

Ultimately, “Horrible Bosses 2” comes across as more
depressing than humorous, in that all of these performers are undeniably more
talented than the material they’ve been given. As they go through the motions
of a distractingly similar plot, one can’t help but think about the original
places the story could have gone if the creators of this sequel had been
willing to take a risk and tried something new, instead of just something
raunchier. Then again, their studio bosses were probably too concerned about
the bottom line to take a chance and there’s nothing more horrible the boss of
a comedy movie can do than play it safe.

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